One look at my avatar and even a doofus could assume I'm pretty hard on my tires. My set of BFG A/T's have been severely abused, and always came back asking for seconds. Sad to say, but they're worn down to the wear bars almost all the way around. I've got almost 39,000 miles on them, so I'm happy that they've lasted this long with the kind of crap I subjected them to. They look pretty pathetic now...but it's fun driving around in the rain with 4 bald tires, can we say powersides?

SO! I need new tires, and I want to get a set of M/T's this time because my A/T's saw some deep mud at times, and I never felt 100% confident facing ANY sort of mud with them under my rig.

Firestone's Destination M/T's have really caught my eye. The price is pretty good locally, they look awesome, and it's something different than the BFG M/T that everyone and their Mother's dog has. My old BFG A/T's were 295/75's, so I'm thinking either 285/75, or 305/70, with the Firestones, but I haven't made up my mind yet. I didn't have any funky wear on my tires with the 295's on stock rims, so I might just go with the 305's.

Has anyone ran these suckers on their rigs with the stock rims? How do they do on the street, dirt, sand, mud? Will these tires make me irresistible to beautiful scantly clad women? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

I avoid Firebombs on principle, along with the parent Bridgestones. The blowout debacle on OEM tires of a few years ago to save 50 cents per tire was enough for me.

I've recently switched to Toyo Open Country's from Goodyear. So far so good.

Be careful of 305's on stock rims. I've ran 305/70R16's since March 1998 and didn't have good luck with even wear on stock rims. The manufacturer's data suggests 8.0-10.0" rims with 9.0" being the preferred. I run 16x8's and am happy with the results.

 

I ran the Bridgestone Dueller MT 285/75-16 on my truck for several sets. This tire is a very close match to the Firestone. I also used to run the Firestone RMT till I wanted to go larger than 265/75-16 tires. I never got over 30K for wear with lots of highway miles between jobsites, but once in the mud they were the best I have run. They clean well and they dig well even in construction site mud goo.
Never had any problems at all, even when severly overloaded.
17,000 pounds gross on a SRW dump truck.
I never did get stuck, but I had to pull several other brands of tires out of the slop.

The only weak part I found about the tire was the tread wear on the highway, but off road I was very pleased. We don't have much sand in WV so I can not rate them in sand, but we do have lots of mud, dirt and snow. I give them a thumbs up in those.

Ahhh, the scantly clad woman never did show up though. I think she was still in the Indy car. But then you know how women are about mud.

 

Dave,

Hmm, 30K doesn't sound too promising, I do log a helluva lot of highway miles. I'll take your word for their traction abilities, most guys who actually work their trucks seem to be in the know more than anyone else.

I'll keep the Destination's on my list, but that highway mileage really bites!

Thanks Dave!

PS: I just happen to park next to a guy with a '03 F-350 CC LB PSD with 305's. He had a fuel transfer box in the bed, so again, I knew this guy was in the know! I asked him if he had any weird tire wear and he did, so I'll stick with either a 285, or a 295.

 

Yes that is what I thought, more so since they were over 200 each with mounting, balancing and installing. But I just installed a set of Cooper/Mastercraft AT's and can not go near where I used to. Also if I am in the mud, when I hit the blacktop you can track me for a long way while I sling all the mud out of them. Never used to have that problem with the Bridgestones or Firestones, 50 feet and they were clean, but they were mud tires.

I got even wear out of the 285 Bridgestone tires if I rotated them about every 4K miles with stock rims. But the tread mileage was never there. I guess if ya wanna go through the slop, ya gotta pay the price for it some way.

 

Roger that Dave, you gotta come up short somewhere! You want good tread life, you give up traction, you want traction, you give up tread life! It's the yin-and-yang of offroad tires...

Seems everywhere I go, people are telling me that they're getting good mileage out of the Destinations, then I see what they're running them on - Jeeps and Sammy's! Well DUH they're going to get good life out of them, hell my drive & powertrain weighs almost as much as their whole rig!

Looks like BFG M/T's are singing their siren song; at least I know I can get near the same mileage with the M/T's as I did with my A/T's.

Hey, thanks for the replies Dave!

 

You are welcome.
Some people play in the mud, I work there.



Thought you might like this.

 

Jeez Louise! Heh, didja make it outta there?

 

Drove it in, filled up two dozers and an excavator with fuel, drove it out. I had the Dueller MT 285's on it then. You can't see the 150 gallon fuel tank in the bed or the pile of tools. Don't everyone go mud boggin with a 10K pound truck?
Darn close to tearing my right side mirror off on the mud was the reason I stopped. Thought it would make a good picture while I was there.

All the guy in the passenger seat said was "I am not getting out here".
Like I said, some people play in the mud, I work there.
These AT's I have now would not even have got to where that was taken.
The good strong LS units in both ends do help a bit also, when I put the hammer down it digs with all four.